CLEEVE (PRIOR'S), a parish in the upper division
of the hundred of OSWALDSLOW, locally in the upper division
of that of Blackenhurst, county of WORCESTER,
5 miles (N. E.) from Evesham, containing 343 inhabitants.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry and
diocese of Worcester, rated in the king's books at £ 8,
and in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Worcester.
The church is dedicated to St. Andrew. The
village is situated on an eminence, but the grounds
immediately round it are flat, and the meadows on the
banks of the Avon, which receives the Arrow, and
enters Worcestershire from this parish, are sometimes
subject to floods. The parish contains blue limestone;
and there are quarries of valuable paving stone, and a
species of marble which bears a polish like the
Derbyshire marble; in working one of which, in 1812, two
earthen jars of Roman coins, one containing gold
and the other silver, principally of the reigns of Gratian,
Valentinian, and Theodosius, and in good preservation,
were found at the depth of three feet from
the surface.